Dear Gavin, It was really great meeting you in person last week. Thanks for making the trek over our way, and it was great worshiping together with you. Our conversation after church really helped ...
In Praise of Prejudice
Dear Gavin, In my last letter, I went into the origins of the authenticity jive. What we need to do now is analyze this a little bit more. If we do this, it will not stop our stereotyping and projecting, but it will help us to understand it a little bit better. We can at …
The Tumult Continues
Introduction: Sometimes ten-year-old boys will throw a baseball at a nest of Asian hornets, and they do this because they are curious. They want to see what would happen. The hornets are also ...
As the Fighting Moderates Mount the Lone Bulwark
Introduction: Oscar Wilde once defined a gentleman as someone who never insults anyone else accidentally. There is a principle here that Christians can take and reapply in other situations. A "gold ...
So Define Ethnicity for Us
Dear Gavin, So we have all these different tribes, all over the world, doing their thing. Where does all the animosity between them come from? And what are these distinct ethnicities exactly, ...
From Babel to Pentecost
Dear Gavin, Thanks for your last letter. Clearly it is time for us to get into the ethnic issues, or at least to start on them. You will notice, right at the front end, that I much prefer to use the ...
A Round-Up On Race, Ethnicity, and Antisemitism
Preamble to All This: I much prefer to speak about ethnic relations in terms of ethnicity, and not in terms of race. But when you fly to Europe, sometimes you have to use Euros to buy things. So in ...
The Case of Owen and the Memorials
Introduction: In a talk at the G3 conference last week, Owen Strachan attempted to take a bold stand, and it did not go well for him. He said, in a “here I stand” sort of way, that God’s love ...
Let’s You and Him Fight
Introduction: The Scriptures teach us to love our enemies. The evangelical squish interprets this to mean that we aren't supposed to have any enemies—except for those awkward hardliners who ...
On Walking Along the Balance Beam of, You Know, Balance
Introduction: I was recently interviewed by Religion News Service and by some friends at New Founding, and in both interviews the same issue came up. As a consequence, it naturally occurred to ...